The Emporia Humanitarian Center is ready to accept tenants.
Employees of the Kansas Children’s Service League are expected to move into the building before the end of the year, and an open house is in the planning stages to introduce other non-profit groups to the potential for having offices in the former Lowther school, 215 W. Sixth Ave.
“We’re to the point where we want to try to get more people into the facility,” said John Mallon, who has taken a leadership role in the restoration of The Kress Building, The Granada Theatre, and now the Lowther building.
Mallon and recently retired business owner Fred Spellman initially offered to buy Lowther, and soon were joined by Carolyn and Dale Davis, who’d read about the men’s offer in a news article.
Sleep on it
“Carolyn woke up the next morning and said, ‘I thought about this all night, and I think we ought to get involved,’” Dale Davis said.
The four became the core of an eight-member non-profit board – the Lowther Building Fund Inc. – that is overseeing different aspects of cleaning up, preparing, and marketing the building to tenants. Mallon is chairman and Spellman is vice chairman.
Steve Haught is putting together an advisory board as a support group for the project, to garner community involvement.
Members of the group envisioned valued not only the historic significance of Lowther, but the stately elegance it lends to the downtown area.
The school first was Lowther Junior High School before different student configurations resulted in its becoming Lowther Middle School, then Lowther South Intermediate School.
“Carolyn and I both attended that school,” Dale Davis said, bringing up memories of a stern but effective principal, A. Kirk Ramy. “They were happy to have her, and happy to see me go. …
“We felt it was one of the better buildings we have here in town. We just felt it would be catastrophic if something happened to these buildings that was not good for the community, long-term.”
And the Davises already had seen what Mallon could do with old buildings. Dale Davis was a member of the committee that returned the dilapidated and water-logged Granada Theatre to its current showplace condition. The project took about 14 years, from the germ of an idea to fruition.
“It was so bad, I don’t think even the pigeons were staying there any more,” Davis said of the Granada.
“They were,” Mallon said, denying the allegation, “because I scooped a lot …”
Lowther, in contrast, has proved to be a solid building that will need minimal alterations or repairs.
Though they’ve occasionally needed to rein in some impatience, the project has progressed well since the sale closed on Sept. 9.
“(The school district) sold off everything, so we basically got a clean building,” Mallon said. “The challenges for us were to get everything in place, to close on the building, go through the zoning process …”
Community showcase
Committee members are especially pleased with Lowther’s wide halls and flooring.
“It’s gorgeous,” Davis said. “It’s one of the few buildings in the city with terrazzo hallways.”
The two-tiered auditorium, with sunflowers painted into a broad set of skylights, will need some changes, though exactly what the changes will be has not yet been determined.
The seating – built to accommodate young teens during an era when children were smaller – presents challenges for adults, from being able to settle comfortably into the seats to knocking their knees against the seats in front of them.
“We donated 80-some of the lockers to the Emporia Christian School, so they now have lockers,” Mallon said. “We’re still looking for some people to donate the others to – another six or seven hundred.”
While single and double-sized classrooms can be easily adapted into office space, decisions also will need to be made about what to do with the school’s culinary area.
The board plans to encourage different special interest and historical groups to take set up small displays in the hallways; the building will be opened for tours by graduating classes holding reunions in Emporia.
In addition to office space for charitable organizations, the board also is in the preliminary stages of discussing possible uses the Flint Hills Technical College might have for a part of the building. Lowther also might be an appropriate site for the historical society, the men said.
Charges for space will be based on recouping utility and maintenance costs, rather than market value.
Outside the walls
Significant changes are planned for the grounds surrounding Lowther.
Most of the tall chain link fencing, along with playground equipment, has been donated to the City of Reading, to replace similar equipment that was destroyed in a tornado that struck the town in May.
The sidewalks that once curved out gently from the front doors to each corner at Sixth Avenue will be laid in again. A fountain will be installed in the front of the property, and horticulturalist Dave McCullough will donate his services for the landscaping that will be done primarily in the spring.
Between now and then, Spellman and others have been moving earth on the Lowther front lawn and taking out a dying Russian olive tree that was losing limbs and leaves.
That prompted a call from former Lowther principal Wayne Bastin, who’d heard that trees were being removed. Bastin wanted to intercede on behalf of the other trees on the property, many of which he’d had a part in planting.
Mallon reassured Bastin that only the wretched-looking olive was slated for removal.
“I did get called to the principal’s office on this,” Mallon said, smiling.
More information about space available in the building may be had by calling Mallon, 344-2250, or Spellman, 341-0262.
pugetopolis (anonymous) says...
Excellent. My heartfelt thanks to John Mallon, Fred Spellman as well as Carolyn and Dale Davis. I know that many Emporians and Lowther-EHS alumni are truly grateful for your history-preservation efforts with these classic buildings including the showcase Granada film palace and the beautiful Kress Building. What excellent style and leadership. May I say that A. Kirk Ramy was glad to see me go too, after several visitations down to his principal’s office. Yes, and I remember the beautiful terracotta floors and very dedicated teachers that I was so lucky to have back then. Thank goodness there were no pigeons up there in the Lowther attic. :-)
November 4, 2011 at 12:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Wayne Bastin needs to get over it. Perhaps now the remaining trees will get the badly needed pruning they deserve, and will once again grow properly. Where has Bastin been all these years that those trees needed pruning?
November 4, 2011 at 8:55 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tourguide (anonymous) says...
DYING OLIVE TREES ! So tell Bastin to buy replacement trees and grab his shovel. Nothing lives forever . Im sure John & Fred,& the Davis's will welcome donations in landscaping. They may name the trees for Wayne. Dave can show him how to plant them ..
November 4, 2011 at 9:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
WOW !
i think the part about the trees was SUPPOSED TO BE A FUNNY?
Lighten up people.
Isn't it a good thing these buildings will be saved and used and the landscaping improved? They look better already with just the fencing down.
November 4, 2011 at 11:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Lighten up, Baloney! If that were meant to be funny, it damn sure wasn't. Maybe the part about being called to the principal's office, but not this part:
"That prompted a call from former Lowther principal Wayne Bastin, who’d heard that trees were being removed. Bastin wanted to intercede on behalf of the other trees on the property, many of which he’d had a part in planting." BS!
Not funny at all. Like I said, Bastin needs to get over it or man a chain saw to do some pruning like he should have been doing all along.
November 4, 2011 at 1:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sail (anonymous) says...
Remember looking at OL EHS from Lowther and not seeing the bld do to all the elms,now they were some trees.
November 4, 2011 at 3:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pugetopolis (anonymous) says...
I enjoyed Jan Huston’s very interesting article recently in The Emporia Gazette (Sept 3, 2011), “Principal Bastin takes final tour of Lowther South.”
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/20...
“Walking the halls of Lowther South for the first time in nearly twenty years, J. Wayne Bastin still knew the location of every light switch, air duct, hidden hallway and storage room in the building. The longtime principal saw the school through its glory days when 1000 students were crammed into classrooms created in every available nook and cranny. Except for a four-year stint away from education in the ‘70s, Bastin worked in the district from 1960-1995 either as teacher or as principal"
"As Scheib and Bastin stood outside the front of the building, Bastin pointed out the Japanese pagoda tree in the front yard that he had planted there. It is still a beautiful tree. Other trees in the yard were also planted by him: the Russian olive and the redbud that was planted when Gene Cusic retired. He had faithfully nurtured the yard and the building just as he cared for the thousands of students who passed through his school’s doors.”
J. Wayne Bastin is another Emporian like John Mallon, Fred Spellman as well as Carolyn and Dale Davis who not only love Emporia but have devoted themselves to trying to make this little Midwestern town a better place. For everybody. I think William Allen White would agree with me.
November 4, 2011 at 5:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
The trees needed to be pruned!
November 5, 2011 at 7 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pugetopolis (anonymous) says...
What a persnickety old prune you are, my dear. All puckered up and nobody to know. :-)
November 5, 2011 at 9:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
The trees needed to be pruned!
November 6, 2011 at 8:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pugetopolis (anonymous) says...
you poor thing....................
November 6, 2011 at 5:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )